Brake Fluid and Paint Removal

Brake fluid is water soluble, so you can just wash it with soap and water

A little soap and warm water.

Like they said.  Just be sure to scrub with a toothbrush or some such, all little areas where the fluid might lay, because paint will definitely not adhere to it. 

re: brake fluid.  i have heard there is probably nothing worse for the environment or for leaving residue nearly impossible to clean thoroughly.

do your kids a favor and move up from old school.

Brake fluid and then Dawn dish soap with water.....air dry or food dehydrator.

Regarding rust removal I have tried with sucess Distilled White Vinegar. It takes a while [12 hrs submerged for surface rust] but it does work!

Thanks for the responses...and...I guess the soapy water answer makes a lot of sense...since that's how I get it off of my hands if I need to do so.

Interesting to me how something so...caustic or environmentally unfriendly can be defeated by warm, soapy water.

I've used the Castrol version of this stuff with plastic models to remove paint too, on automotive sheet metal and steel its o.k.. But I think there's a warning against using it on some other metals. I think its penetrating properties cause issues. It leaves the plastic soft for a bit and I know it discolors some aluminum and leaves it splotchy. It also caused surface crackling and pitting on smooth aluminum/magnesium alloy. That said, for plastic it'll probably be fine, some tinplate too, but the galvanized stuff? And till I see an engine done with "purple degreaser" "live" another 10 or 15 years, my cast locos wont be stripped with Castrol. I have to wonder what it would do to an old cast Dryfuss too. 

Brake fluid will soften the plastic so it is not a good choice.  You also should not touch it with your bare hands  - use rubber gloves.  Finally it is awful for the envionment and should be recycled as you would with oil.  If you are repainting any model, it is far better to use a fine sandpaper to rough up the surface a bit and then repaint.

I had hit or miss results with removing paint from plastic pieces with brake fluid and Testors version,Easy Lift Off.I mostly had good luck removing the paint,but sometimes it would dissolve the plastic or not dissolve the paint very well.

quote:

Regarding rust removal I have tried with sucess Distilled White Vinegar. It takes a while [12 hrs submerged for surface rust] but it does work

I find that using a mixture of Simple Green and Vinegar (with water) in my ultrasonic cleaner works very well. It will removing blackening too.

When the item dries, a coat of "flash rust" often appears. I light coat of CRC 2-26 takes care of that.

I tried using Brake Fluid years ago. It didn't work well for me.

I found that Tide worked better for me. At the time, laundry detergents still had phospates. The last time I wanted to strip paint, you could buy phospate in the Hardware store, but that was quite a while ago.

I have a 2056 that has been stripped and waiting to be painted for at least 10-15 years. I even have the paint (mfg says it should still be good).

Reading the product directions, warnings and Material Safety Data Sheets is VERY informative. 

Not to derail the discussion, but that food dehydrator part just seems like a bad idea to me.  (assuming you mean the one in the refrigerator where food is kept sometimes)

-Dave

That part of the of the refrigerator is actually the hydrator.  What he is referring to is most likely the dehydrators used to create dried fruit, jerky, etc.  Those move warm air through them to remove moisture for dried foods.

Thanks for waking me up.  That sounds more correct!

My general concern of putting something that was soaking in brake fluid in something  that might be used for food in any way still stands.  I know the premise is that the soap and water will remove the brake fluid, but still.

Of course if one has a dedicated dehydrator just for drying train projects, then I see no issue!   (probably implied, but you never know!)

-Dave

I've used Super Clean with mixed results there's some paints it won't touch. Seems some Sanda Kan/ Kader trains were painted with ink and even alcohol won't lift it. Best results were with using plain old DOT 3 brake fluid.

Super Clean & Pine Sol will burn skin. 

My ten year old $10 dehydrator is a hobby paint dryer only!!! To use it as such you must cut the inside of two trays out.....so there's not a place to use it as intended anyway.  Now when I use the blender to mix paint.........(it's a joke...no panic!!)